War
by sgordon238
Summary: The story of a girl in the midst of the war on the Capitol. Her life, loves, and crazy antics, as she continually dodges a dark secret haunting her past. T just to be safe.
1. In the beginning

Izzy awoke to see tongues of flame licking at her face. Smoke filled her lungs and she choked. Everywhere she looked, all she could see was smoke and fire. _It's only a dream,_ she thought, but deep down inside she knew that no one who had bad dreams told themselves that. They just knew. She stumbled out of bed but found herself too groggy to dodge the scalding inferno. Suddenly a deafening explosion filled the air. Izzy was knocked down by the blast, taking a burning lamp down with her. The lamp hit her stomach and a billion needles of pain shot throughout her body with vigorous force.

Izzy shoved the lamp off her and got up with renewed enthusiasm. She stumbled through the shack that was her house, falling more and more as she got to the door. She couldn't see a thing, but she pressed on with one focus: survival. Though she could hear more explosions all around her, the house was silent. Izzy made a risky decision to not look for her mom. But as much as she wanted to get out alive, Izzy found the smoke was filling her throat, her eyes, her nose. No oxygen was getting to her brain. Her head began to spin. Nest thing she knew, Izzy was laying facedown on the floor. But this time she didn't have the energy to get up. In fact, Izzy had no energy at all.

Who knows how long Izzy stayed there, despairing, aching, burning, wanting more to just get it over with as the minutes passed. But the flames wanted to torture, not kill her. And just as Izzy felt that she really literally was about to die, light filled the room. Izzy was blinded by the whiteness but unable to shield her eyes. The momentum of the door kept going and slammed into Izzy's arm, but she couldn't do anything about it. Then strong hands picked her body up. It went limp in the rescuer's hands. And it was all too much. Izzy couldn't take in the destruction everywhere she looked, or the bombs falling from the sky. Her eyes fluttered shut.

"Jacob! Who's this? Get out of here! Go to the forest and take her with you! Now!"


	2. Who's Mr Dreamy?

I wake up in the middle of a forest, surrounded by people who look like they had just made the trip to hell and back. Of course, I don't want to be a hypocrite; I probably look like that too.

A guy about my age, maybe a couple years old leans over me. He turns to a man behind him and says,

"She's coming to." The man, who looks like your typical Seam guy, simply dismisses him with a wave of his hand and a single word: "Great."

The guy leaning over me returns his focus to my and my heart beats a little faster. This dude is _hot. _He's got really short golden hair and eyes like dark chocolate. Mysterious.

Gently, he starts to speak.

"Hi there. My name is Jacob. I'm 19. I saved you from the bombings. Are you alright? What's your name?" His voice seems distant and quiet. I barely manage to croak out,

"I'm Izzy Regan." before I start into a fit of hysteric coughing. Someone hands me a bottle of water. I chug it in seconds, then ask for more. Jacob smiles, a killer smile that makes my heart melt. I'm handed some more water and quickly finish this, too, but I already feel so much better.

"I'm 17. My mom…" I shoot glances all around me, but I don't see my mom. I feel tears running down my cheeks. How can I be crying? Jacob begins to comfort me.

"Listen. What's your mom's name? She might've left with the earlier group."

"Janice." I say.

"He smiles. Yeah. She was with Steel. But you're the last to join our group. Gale over there-" he points to the guy who he was talking to earlier, "is going to lead us to District 13."

"But- isn't 13 dead?"

"Not anymore. They rebuilt themselves. They live in secrecy of all of us. Only the rebels know. No Hunger Games for them."

"Uh-huh." I nod my head slowly, taking it all in. "What happened?"

Jacob's beautiful face takes on a look of despair. "Well, the Capitol bombed us, and it sounds like most of the other districts as well. Only about 50 people got out."

"Oh." Is all I can say. Then I notice my head is pounding and hurts like hell. I put my hand to my forehead. Noticing this makes me realize my body aches all over. Come to think of it, I feel like crap. I let out a tiny "Ow" and Jacob is all over me, asking me if I'm alright. He calls another man over. I recognize him from the shops I have to pass on my way to school. When I was little, I'd stop in and he'd give me a lollipop. Now I realize he was the vet.

"Hi there, Izzy. I'm Glade. You remember me, don't you? I'm going to check you out, if that's alright." I nod solemnly. Jacob steps back and puts a worried expression on his face.

Glade asks me a couple questions about when I was in our house. I answer as truthfully as I can. The whole memory is kind of hazy. He inspects me all over but is careful not to hurt me. Finally he rolls my sleeve back down and puts his tools back in his doctor bag, which he amazingly must've saved.

"Well Izzy, you're pretty badly beat up. I'm pretty sure you have a concussion and I think you're now deaf in your right ear. You have a third degree burn on your stomach, which I treated as best I could, and a fourth degree burn on your arm. I figured out you were lucky and your body shut down your arm before it could kill you, but it's always hard to say this- it's paralyzed."

As I process all this information Jacob steps in to comfort me again. I relive the memories of me writing with my left arm, hugging with it, even eating with it. I relive those memories, then I try to recreate them. I move my arm up to touch my nose. It stays firmly in place. I break down in tears. Jacob moves and strokes my ugly thin brown hair. My eyes dart up to his and I suddenly feel better. Gale's shouts interrupt my betterness.

_Damn you, Gale._

"Let's pack up, people! We're heading to 13!"


	3. They're Coming

Gently Jacob lifts me off the ground. I dust myself off- though it didn't help my appearance much. I grimace at the pain, but put my best fake smile on so he doesn't see.

"Can you walk alright?" he asks and I take a couple test steps. My head hurts and I'm dizzy, my feet are wobbly and sore and I'm falling forward, forward- right into Jacob's arms.

"I don't think you're ready to move yet. Here. Hop on." I manage to struggle my way onto Jacob's back, but it's difficult because I can only use one arm. Gale and the rest of our pack are already moving.

Jacob turns into a slight jog to catch up with the others. He catches up with Gale and strikes up a conversation, but I don't pay attention. I can't really hear them anyways, with my ear and all. I decide to see whom we're with. There aren't many girls, but the few that there I don't recognize. There are a couple stocky guys, but we're all mostly skinny as hell, because it's District 12 we're talking about.

"- and when we get there, Elaine's supposed to get us all rooms, but it's gonna be crowded. We'll probably all get roommates. Yeah, it's a lot-" I tune the boys out again.

Overall, there are maybe 35 of us. Looks like my mom's group didn't have many people in it. That's when I realize our surroundings. This forest- this beautiful medley of spruces and pines -must be the one beyond the Fence. I'd never been back here before. In fact, I'd never been in a forest before. I'd never been anywhere besides District 12 in my life before.

A stick thin girl maybe a year younger than me approaches and says hi.

"Hey. I'm Izzy. What's your name?" I feel awkward because I'm on Jacob's back, but I get the vibe that the girl isn't nervous because of that. She ignores my question.

"You know, we could get caught. What if the Capitol finds us? Finds us running away?" She looks nervously around.

"That's not true. If the Capitol knew about District 13 then they'd look for us. But they don't know what we're doing." I say with surprising confidence, though I'm not even fooling myself. The girl retreats but her worried expression doesn't change.

I feel a tap on my shoulder.

"Izzy?" I do a little jump, but it doesn't really work since I'm on Jacob's back.

"Sorry. I was zoning out." Jacob lets out a little grin.

"We're about to catch up with Steel's group. You'll probably get to see your mom." I read Jacob face and understood someone he knew was also in that group. My face lights up. Immediately I can feel as if I could walk, even run to my mom. I notice a little moving clump on the horizon and I figure my mom must be there. In a matter of minutes we're coming up on the edge of a desert with Steel's group a mere hundred meters from us or so.

That's when I notice we've stopped. With my ear, I must not have noticed, but now I hear a faint whirring sound. Even the people with my mom have froze. Gale shouts.

"Everbody! Get down! Hide! Now! The Capitol's coming!" With the evasive maneuvers of a pro, Jacob dives behind a bush. I land on my hip and I hear a little 'pop' and everything hurts. The sound gets louder. The wind picks up. I'm scared, but I want so badly to help my mom. Then a huge shadow is over us, the sky is black and all I see from the bush is my running mom being picked up by a hovercraft.

"No!" I scream and claw at the bush! I get up and start running towards my mom. I don't care how bad it hurts- I can't lose my mom now.

"Mom!"


	4. New Friends, New Enemies

And then all I could feel was a strong hand yanking me back with such force that I rolled backwards quite a ways. I wasn't sure I could make it back, but I couldn't let my mom couldn't become an Avox.

Unsure of how to pop my hip back in place, I gave it a hard shove inwards and started running back to my mom.

The same hand that grabbed me before yanked me down, hard. The person shoved their hand over my mouth just as I let out a scream.

The person kept me down as I saw my mother being lifted into the sky and torn apart from me forever. When the whirring was no longer perceptible to the human ear. The person let me go. I flipped around to see who my capturer was, expecting to see Jacob.

Instead I looked straight into the eyes of Gale. His eyes were large and were a subtle grey. He let out a small grunt.

"Don't pull a stunt like that ever again. You put us all in danger." he said gruffly. "Let's move, people!"

Astounded, I started to protest, but he cut me off.

"Listen. When I'm leading you to your safety, you go by my rules. Understood?"

"Understood." I say quietly.

"Good. Prince Charming over there found you some crutches."

I swallow. Was it really that obvious that I liked Jacob? He was irresistible, though. I walk over there, preparing for a comforting hug, but instead I get two sticks shoved in my face.

"Use these. I can't carry you anymore. Sorry." he said with genuine sympathy.

As we hike towards 13, I can feel all eyes on me. Apparently, no one else felt bad that the Capitol abducted those people.

By midnight we had arrived at District 13. As bad of condition we were in, Gale insisted we couldn't spend the night in the wilderness.

An elevator brought us down, down, down, until I thought one more foot and we'd be swimming in groundwater.

The elevator doors opened and once again, I was blinded by the whiteness.

_The fire licks at your face, your arms, but you can't do anything. You're stuck in the middle of the sun, alone, waiting to die, but it'll never happen._

_The sun burns your face, your eyes. It clogs your nose and mouth; you can't breathe. Your muscles shrivel up inside; you can't move._

_Daylight fills the room; terror fills your heart. A figure looms above you. The fire vanishes but the pain stays. Everything goes black._

I open my eyes to find myself staring at a white ceiling. A nurse is tending my burns, elevating my head. I look around. People are crowded around my bed but the nurse tells them to go back to their beds. Jacob is on my right; the wide-eyed girl that approached me while I was on Jacob's back is on my left.

A girl enters the infirmary. She looks maybe 20 and is basically a supermodel. Jacob's eyes light up and he limps over to her and gives her a giant smooch. She embraces him and kisses him. The nurse leads Jacob back to his bed and the girl follows. Turning towards me, Jacob says,

"Izzy, this is Lanie, my girlfriend." Lanie gives a picture-perfect smirk and slyly says,

"Hi Izzy. How do you know my Jakey?" I swallow and mumble

"He saved me."

"Jake! You're a hero! You saved this girl's life!" The girl gives Jacob another steamy kiss. I can't bear to watch. I grab the trashcan beside me and throw up.

The wide-eyed girl puts her hand out.

"I'm Tazer."


	5. Settling In

Reluctantly, I smile.

"Hi Tazer. I would shake your hand but I can't move my arm." She laughs a little, but still looks kind of tentative.

I shoot a glance at Jacob. He's chatting away with Miss Supermodel over there. She notices I'm looking and shoots me the bird under Jacob's field of eyesight.

_She _so _does not deserve him,_ I think.

"So when can I get out of this joint?" I say aloud. I'm sick of this place. It's too white. Maybe the rooms will be a pleasant earthy green, or have an appealing autumnal palette.

A nurse walks over and plasters a fake smile on her face.

"I'm sorry, miss. You have to stay here until you're all better." I groan enthusiastically. I'm not usually this disruptive. There's just a certain someone who I want to disrupt.

"Please let me leave. I'm fine. All I need are some crutches. Please." I'm begging the nurse for real, though. She sees the pleading in my eyes.

"I'll check you out."

"Um- excuse me- ma'am- I think she's okay too." I point to Tazer, waiting for a nod of approval. The nurse rolls her eyes and says,

"You're free to leave anytime." I smile and thank her. Tazer gets up with me. Now that I can see her up close, I realize she's younger than I thought, probably about 15.

"Bye Jacob." I say dismissively. I take one last look at his incredibly sexy face, and then start to strut out the door.

"Izzy! Wait! The doctor told me we'd be in therapy together, with another guy, Logan." Great. Just when I step away from the biggest crush of my life, he pulls me right back into orbit. Tazer, thank god, yanks me away from the door.

A middle-aged woman in white scrubs walks up to us and says,

"Hello, girls. Have you been assigned a room yet?" We shake our heads in unison. The woman smiles.

"Follow me." We shuffle along behind the woman as she leads us to a sort of receptionist's desk. The woman starts entering stuff into the computer.

"Now would you girls like a room together or apart?"

"Apart." I say, at the same time Tazer says,

"Together." I start to sputter out that we'd go with Tazer's idea, but the woman cuts me off.

"How about I give you two a conjoined room? You each get your own room, but if you want you can open a door and voila, it's like the same room." I wait for Tazer to agree with the idea before I do. I feel really bad already.

Inside the room, my heart sinks. The walls, the carpet, the bedding, everything is white.

The room has a simple layout, with the bed in the corner of the room and a nightstand beside it. There is a dresser in the middle of the opposite wall with a mirror and everything. Near the door there's a closet full of basic white clothes. I quick inspection of Tazer's room spurred results that hers was exactly the same. We shared a bathroom.

It looks like the bed had been made, but the room hadn't been cleaned up much from it's previous owner. There was trash in the trash can and the clothes were kind of messily folded. I found a sticky pad of- you guessed it- _white_ sticky notes and a pencil.

On the sticky note, I wrote,

_Not all hope is lost._

I stuck the sticky note on the wall.


	6. Unpredictable

A screech pierces my ears. At first I think it's Tazer having a nightmare. But the piercing noise ends, then starts back up again at the same annoying pitch. I realize, with dawning horror, that it's an alarm.

"Taze! Honey, get up!" An unknown head pops in.

"Move, people! We're getting bombed! Go underground!" Well that's not backwards. Aren't we already underground? How can we go any deeper. I yank a drowsy Tazer out of bed and limp with her in my arms to the door.

I follow the crowd, but I'm so confused. Hw can we be bombed when we're underground?

That's when the first one hits. An experience I've never felt full scale in my life. The first bomb explodes, and I see one woman not attached to her leg, another man already dead with his head off.

The force of the blast had smashed me into the ground, Tazer-side first. My leg hurts now more than ever, but I'm more concerned about Taze. She's beginning to really wake up, and with a nasty nosebleed and what I think may be a dislocated shoulder.

A strong hand shoves me forward, and I realize it's the crowd pushing against me from another blast.

I stumble, and it doesn't do much to help my leg, which is recovering from my hip being re-dislocated and then popped back into the right spot. They had to tear a few muscles in the process.

Finally, I see some doors at the end of a long flight of steps. Forced to take two steps at a time, I trip my way down the treacherous stairs to the doors that are closing. Why would they close the doors on us? We just got here, and now we're about to die?

With renewed energy, I fly down the steps three at a time and as the people filter in the closing doors- I realize the crowd has thinned tremendously- I take a giant leap through the doors that are now only a foot wide.

I won't be able to fit through with Tazer.

And though I make the decision in a split second it seems like eternity when I thrust the small girl's body through the tiny gap and dive through myself.

The world spins. Tazer may have been the last person to get to safety.

I hear more explosions go off.


End file.
